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Messianic Prophecies

Exodus 15:11

This passage comes from the wider catalog — a broader, more lightly curated list than the core set. Both readings are shown as peers; GEBible takes no side.

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Exodus 15:11

Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

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Your right hand, Yahweh, is glorious in power. Your right hand, Yahweh, dashes the enemy in pieces.

In the greatness of your excellency, you overthrow those who rise up against you. You send out your wrath. It consumes them as stubble.

With the blast of your nostrils, the waters were piled up. The floods stood upright as a heap. The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea.

The enemy said, ‘I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the plunder. My desire will be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword. My hand will destroy them.’

You blew with your wind. The sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

You stretched out your right hand. The earth swallowed them.

“You, in your loving kindness, have led the people that you have redeemed. You have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation.

The peoples have heard. They tremble. Pangs have taken hold of the inhabitants of Philistia.

Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed. Trembling takes hold of the mighty men of Moab. All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.

Terror and dread falls on them. By the greatness of your arm they are as still as a stone, until your people pass over, Yahweh, until the people you have purchased pass over.

The counter-reading

How this passage is read within its own context.

The critical reading takes Exodus 15:11 as a line in the Song of the Sea celebrating YHWH's incomparability among the gods and his supremacy in defeating Pharaoh's forces. It notes that the phrasing presupposes other deities, reflecting an early henotheistic stage of Israelite religion rather than the strict monotheism that developed later. On this view the passage praises YHWH's martial power and says nothing about a future messianic figure or a person's moral character. Applying it to Jesus, this reading argues, requires importing a later christological and Trinitarian framework that took centuries to formalize.

The fulfillment reading

How this passage is read as pointing to the Messiah.

The messianic-fulfillment reading applies the incomparable holiness praised in the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15:11) to Jesus, appealing to the incarnation and a Trinitarian hermeneutic in which descriptions of YHWH's character are legitimately predicated of Christ. Luke 1:35 and Acts 4:27 speak of Jesus as holy, and on this reading the NT authors' transfer of divine attributes to Jesus reflects the early church's recognition of his divine identity. Defenders hold that the apostolic witness consistently treats OT descriptions of YHWH as applicable to Jesus, so the holiness ascribed to God is properly manifested in Christ.

How the New Testament uses this passage

Each entry names how the New Testament author draws on the passage — a direct quotation, an allusion, an echo, or a typological reading. An echo or an allusion is not the same as a prediction; the label says which is which.

  • Luke 1:35 Echo

    Luke 1:35 and Acts 4:27 share the theme and vocabulary of holiness applied to Jesus but neither quotes nor directly alludes to Exodus 15:11.

  • Acts 4:27 Echo

    Luke 1:35 and Acts 4:27 share the theme and vocabulary of holiness applied to Jesus but neither quotes nor directly alludes to Exodus 15:11.